Electronic devices such as tablets, laptop computers, desktop computers, cellular telephones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable interne devices, portable music players, portable navigation devices, and handheld gaming devices typically include a visual display for rendering images.
Touch screen displays are becoming increasing popular for such electronic devices. Touch screen displays are electronic displays with the ability to detect a selection of the display, or an area thereof, based on physical contact, such as contact on the display by a user's finger(s) or a stylus or other device. Several touch screen technologies are known in the art, including resistive, capacitive, infrared, and surface acoustic wave (SAW) touch screen displays.
A touch screen display typically includes an electronic display and a substantially transparent touch screen that is laid over the electronic display. The electronic display is configured to present graphical and/or textual information. In general, the touch screen is configured to recognize physical contact and its position on the display screen, and the electronic device interprets the contact and thereafter performs an action based on the contact. This allows the display to be used as an input device, providing for interaction with a displayed graphical user interface (GUI), and for minimizing or omitting other input devices from the electronic device, such as a keyboard and/or mouse. An electronic device may include one or more integrated touch screen displays, or have one or more attached touch screen displays.
A touch screen display may render onto the display a user interface, such as a GUI, that allows a user to interact with the functions of the electronic device. For example, an operating system of the electronic device or a program executed by the electronic device may cause one or more graphical or textual images to be rendered on the electronic display, at least some of which can be selected by the user or are otherwise capable of some level of interaction. While conventional user interfaces, such as graphical user interfaces for touch screen displays, permit the selection of displayed elements through a user selection, they typically do not permit the manipulation of the displayed element, such as the manipulation of its size, shape, and orientation on the screen. To the extent that such manipulation is provided, it is limited to preset and lateral expansion and retraction that lacks an intuitive nature that is engaging and aesthetically pleasing to a user.
In addition, elements displayed on a user interface may include items of subject information, such as subject information received from programs running on the electronic device or from communication channels such as the internet or digital connection. While conventional user interfaces, such as graphical user interfaces for touch screen displays, may be configured to display one or more items of subject information in an element, the state of the subject information (i.e., the particular item of subject information and the number of displayed items of subject information) displayed in the element is generally not configured for manipulation by the user.
Accordingly, there is a need and desire for an electronic device including an intuitive and user-friendly user interface that provides these and other features, and a method of providing a user interface that includes these features.